Who Will Rule After Me?
by CharlesTheBold
Summary: Snow is all-powerful, but he is aging. Who will he choose to carry on his policies after his death? Please Review!
1. Livia Snow

**Who Will Rule After Me?**

 _(Disclaimer: I have no business connection with HUNGER GAMES. My only purpose in writing this story is to have fun and maybe share it)_

 **Chapter 1 Livia Snow**

The people of the Capitol would be surprised if they saw President Snow's inner sanctum. It was quite austere, with few of the frills that adorned most Capitol buildings. The principal decoration was a side wall, with an inscription in Latin and Panemian English:

 _These your imperial arts, ye sons of Rome!  
O'er distant realms to stretch your awful sway,  
To bid those nations tremble and obey;  
To crush the proud, spread glory near and far,  
give mankind peace, or shake the world with war._

An expert in Virgil might notice that the inscription left out a line, about showing mercy to the humbled. That was not Snow's style.

"Sir?" said his secretary's voice on his intercom. "Your daughter Livia is here to see you."

"Thank you, send her in."

Livia was Snow's only child, and was presumed to be Snow's heir. The little girl whom Livia had recently borne, Claudia, made a Snow dynasty even more likely. Snow was very fond of Claudia, but there was one thing about the birth that disturbed him.

Livia had refused to give the name of Claudia's father. That was not unusual in the Capitol, but disturbing from the dynastic point of view. Some day Claudia might be president, and Snow worried at the idea of the mysterious father coming out of the woodwork, playing on Claudia's emotions, and becoming a power behind the throne. He had given up trying to get the information out of Livvie, and instead assigned a trusted investigator to look into the matter.

"Welcome, Livvie. You said you had something important to talk about. Is Claudia all right."

"Yes, Claudia's fine. But I had an idea, about the Hunger Games."

"Rather late, isn't it? The 64th Games were just last month."

"I know. I watched them while I was nursing Claudy." Her decision to breastfeed the baby had been unusual by Capitol standards, but not worth arguing about. "The contrast – well, it got me to thinking."

"About what?"

"I think that when a tribute receives a serious injury in the Games, they should be retrieved by hovercraft and brought back to the Capitol for treatment."

"And sent back once they are patched up? That would prolong the Games a lot."

"No. Once they've been retrieved for treatment, they are 'out'. The Victor will be the last one to stay functional in the arena. Then everybody goes home."

Snow stared. "My dear, I think you're missing the point of the Games."

"Point? What point? In the Games last month, I saw one girl got her belly slashed open by a Career with a sword. Disemboweled, the experts called it. She died, but only after an hour of agony. What was the point of that?"

"One of the main purposes of the Games is to punish the Districts for Rebellion."

"What does that mean, exactly? A District is an abstraction. You don't punish a district; you punish PEOPLE. Yeah, I've heard the theory, that the Romans thought one could punish a rebel by targeting their children. But even if you accept that, the Rebellion was more than sixty years ago. How many rebels are still alive now, given the low life expectancy out in the Districts? If you still want to punish the actual rebels, why not hang the ones that are left and have done with it?"

"It's not just a matter of punishing rebellion in the past; it's also deterring rebellion in the future. Losing 2 kids a year – 1 if they're the Victor that year - is the baseline if they do nothing more than having rebelled 60 years ago. I leave it to their imagination what we would do if they REALLY angered us - where did you get this idea of a changed Games, anyway?"

"You gave me permission to study history. There was something called the Olympic Games. Actually they happened twice, once in ancient Greece and once after the Industrial Revolution. People COMPETED, without killing each other. It was a unifying force."

"But we don't want a unifying force," said the President. "Divide and conquer is our rule. Right now our Peacekeepers are a match for any one District if it rebelled. But if several Districts were to combine and offer separate threats, the Peacekeepers would overwhelmed. Right now there's little contact between the Districts. When they do come into contact, they try to kill each other. There's a fundamental split between the Career Districts and the outliers."

"You keep talking about rebelling. When they rebelled, if they rebelled. How about setting up an Empire where nobody wanted to rebel?"

"You say you've studied history, Livvie. Well, it's a law of history that a period of anarchy is ended by the rise of a powerful ruler willing to crush any opposition. The Leviathan, one philosopher called it. The Roman Civil War – Pompey, Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, Antony – ended with the Emperor Augustus. The Mongol depredations ended with the powerful Ming Dynasty. The War of the Roses ended with the Tudors. The French Revolution produced Napoleon. But no anarchy matches what hit the human race in the past few centuries. Plague, war, ecological disaster. Population went from several billion down to several million; that's a thousandfold decrease. We have a responsibility to keep the peace."

" 'The Romans created a desert and called it peace'," quoted Livia. "One of their own writers said that. It's been two generations since the rebellion; isn't it time to change tactics?"

"I'm not ready to take that risk," said Snow.

"YOU'RE not," said Livia, now losing her temper altogether. "But you're not going to be around forever. Someday I'll be President, and I'll run the Hunger Games the way I suggested. A peaceful, civilized Games."

"You can't do that. It'll ruin everything."

Livia stood up. "How are you going to stop me? You'll be dead. Goodbye, Father". She marched to the door of the office and slammed it behind her.

For a time the President sat still, thinking. Only when his mouth filled with too much blood from his sores did he move to use his spittoon, then he sat again. Eventually his phone rang again, this time his most private line.

"Hello?"

"This is Oculus," The investigator he had hired. "Can we talk freely?"

"Yes. Go on."

"I found the name of your daughter's co-parent. Fellow named Julius King. They're still sleeping together. They've made a secret assignation for tomorrow, a cabin in the border mountain."

"I see," The President came to a decision. "Arrange an accident."

"Sir?"

"Arrange a fatal accident. Make sure it's untraceable, and don't ask any questions. And make sure that nothing happens to my grand-daughter."

"Ah - yes, sir."

The President hung up, and thought grimly:

 _How am I going to stop you? Easily. You'll be dead._

TO BE CONTINUED.

 _(Author's Note: my thanks to Kakima54 for suggesting a story built around Snow's succession.)_

 _(Author's Note: the poem quoted at the beginning is from Virgil's AENEID, Book 6, but has been altered to fit Snow's philosophy.)_


	2. Triton Brothers

**Who Will Rule After Me?**

 **Chapter 2 Triton Brothers**

The arena for the Sixty-sixth Hunger Games was a cold, largely featureless landscape covered with a thick fog bank that limited visibility. It created an interesting challenge for this year's tributes, unable to see an enemy unless they were close by. Unfortunately it also made things difficult for the cameras, which could not penetrate the fog well either. Some technicians had worked out some image-enhancements technology for the broadcasts, but they looked artificial, and Snow ordered them to stay with the natural look.

He was watching the Games alone from his office. For the past year he had been staying largely out of sight, except for necessary public appearances such as the Tribute Parade. It was generally announced that he was in mourning for his daughter, who had been assassinated 11 months ago.

Nobody suspected him. Oculus had literally caught the lovers naked, and left their unclad bodies for the Peacekeepers to find. Snow was genuinely queasy about the thought of several investigators seeing his daughter's bared breasts as they found her body lying on the bedroom floor, but it gave him an excuse to suppress details of the murder "for decency's sake". Some prisoner was induced to confess to the murders and was hanged, which would have happened to him anyway.

The real reason for his seclusion was the fear that some copycat might be tempted to assassinate Snow himself. Snow thought that would be a terrible tragedy, and not just for personal reasons. With Livia gone, there was no obvious person to take over if he were to be killed. Claudia was his official heir but not even one year old as yet; it would be two decades before she was really ready to rule in his place. Snow had to have a contingency plan.

Meanwhile he could at least enjoy the Hunger Games.

As usual the Careers had managed to capture the area around the Cornucopia. All six of the tributes from 1, 2, and 4 were in the group, and they were led by the boy from 4, named Triton Brothers. Triton was using a sharp knife to carve some symbols on the Cornucopia. Two rows of twelve.

"I counted 10 tributes dead at the melee," said Triton. "We'll be sure when we see their pictures in the sky tonight. There are 6 of us, and I've asked a seventh to join us. That leaves seven adversaries to worry about. Let's pool our knowledge about them."

Snow peered at Triton's image on the screen. He had never seen a Career leader who was so organized.

"I saw a boy escape the melee with 2 axes," somebody said. "Probably from District 7. He may keep one as a secret weapon if we disarm him of the first."

"The girl from 10 is small, but I saw her take self-defense lessons during training," said another. "She was pretty good at it."

"The boy from 8 looks strong, but he was holding his right arm stiffly," said a third. "May be his weak side."

"He could have been faking."

"If so, he lost sponsors as a result."

"Somebody's coming," said the girl from 2.

A small boy came out of the fog.

"That's Nick Sandstein from District 3," said Triton. "I invited him to join us, back during training. So, Nick, can you think of a way to get around this damn fog?"

"I think so," said Nick. He held up his arm. "I think I can set up a resonance between the GPSs that they put in our arms, so we can detect somebody nearby. Even triangulate using two of us. But I need some electronics."

"Did anybody grab an electronic weapon at the melee?" ask Triton.

"I got a taser," said the girl from 1.

"Give it to Nick."

"Hey! I killed somebody to get this."

"I'll trade you one of my weapons to replace it," said Triton.

As Nick fiddled with the taser, Triton turned to the others. "Now, let's talk about the alliance. WE WILL NOT FIGHT EACH OTHER until we all agree on it. Anybody who tries to stab someone in the back ahead of time, the rest of us will kill him or her. Understand? So we can trust each other."

The rest nodded.

A thought came upon Snow. This Triton boy is an excellent leader. Got the allegiance of the rest of the Careers, plans the Games strategy ahead, even recruited a District 3 nerd on the chance that his talents would be useful.

 _HE MAY BE AN EXCELLENT LEADER FOR PANEM._

 _It depends on his loyalties, of course. If he hates the Capitol, I can't trust him. I need to know more about him._

Snow called the Head Peacekeeper, Caesar Janus, and asked him for all the records they had on Triton, including from District 4. Then he called the Head Gamesmistress, Matilda Turkeymother, and asked her to keep a camera on Triton and send him the footage, even though they broadcast footage from other cameras.

The Peacekeepers came back with just one incident, which indirectly involved Triton. A dissident whom they were monitoring had denounced the Hunger Games. Triton, who had been on the scene, defended the Games as a mild alternative to all-out war. The dissident said Triton wouldn't be so pro-Games if he was Reaped himself, and Triton promised to back up his beliefs by volunteering at the next Reaping – and he did.

To Snow that record was all in Triton's favor.

The Games footage showed that Triton's strategy was a success. The District 3's device was a success in tracking down isolated tributes. The boy with 2 axes was disarmed and killed before he could reach his second ax. The girl who was good at self-defense was shot from a distance with a bow and arrow. The boy with a bad right arm was ambushed from that side.

There were two danger moments. One came after the detection device ran out of power and could not be recharged. A tribute from 11 tried to sneak up on Triton from behind, and the boy heard the attacker only at the last second. He whirled around, stabbed the attacker dead, then seemed to have a panic attack, spinning around and waving his sword, calming down after a few minutes. Snow contacted a Capitol psychologist, who said that Triton was probably repressing a good deal of stress to maintain his calm façade, and that the sneak attack had triggered a violent release. But that effect would probably clear up after the unique environment of the Games was over.

The other danger came when all the non-Careers were dead, and the Careers agreed to have the final fight to determine the victor. Snow half expected Triton to cheat, and even hoped he would so that he would not lose his victor. But Triton fought fair, and won.

Before the hovercraft, returning with the 66th Victor, had even landed, Snow decided that he might have his heir. Triton was loyal, intelligent, and had the personality to dominate others. After Triton mentioned being fascinated by the Capitol, Snow gave him special permission to stay in the city rather than rusticating in the Districts as the other Victors did. He fended off the decadent women who were willing to pay a lot to bed the new Victor, reminding them that Finnick would be available in a couple more years. And although he refrained from revealing his plans until testing Triton further, he decided to throw a grand dinner party to see how he would interact with the people of the Capitol.

At first everything went swimmingly, as Triton seemed to charm the guests.

Then an Avox servant, passing behind Triton, accidentally dropped some silverware.

The startling sound behind him seemed to galvanize Triton. He spun around hit the Avox a tremendous blow. Then he picked up a dinner knife from a table and spun around looking for enemies. Clearly he thought he was back in the arena beset by foes. The frightened crowd merged on one side of the room trying to get out of range of the madman, and that gave the Peacekeepers a clear shot.

BLAM when their guns. They had not waited for an order from Snow. Dozens of important people, including the President, were in danger, and in such cases their standing order was SHOOT FIRST.

Chief Peacekeeper Janus stepped forward, examined the body of the fallen Victor, and pronounced him dead.

Snow looked down at his once-potential heir, and privately mulled over some suitable punishment for the psychologist who had assured him that Triton would be stable after the Games. It wouldn't bring back his favorite, but it would make Snow feel better.

TO BE CONTINUED

 _(AUTHOR'S NOTE: "Turkeymother" is a pun on "Torquemada", better known in history books as the Grand Inquisitor)_

 _(AUTHOR'S NOTE: I changed the year of the games. I originally designated it as year 65, but one reader, TWLtwl, pointed out that that was Finnick's year._


	3. Caesar Janus, Chief Peacekeeper

**Who Will Rule After Me?**

 **Chapter 3 Caesar Janus, Chief Peacekeeper**

 _For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground / And tell sad stories of the death of kings; / How some have been deposed; some slain in war /Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed; / Some poisoned by their wives: some sleeping killed; /  
All murdered:_

 _Shakespeare's_ _ **Richard II**_

 _I am Richard II, know ye not that?_

 _Queen Elizabeth I, on learning of the play._

"Chief Janus to see you, sir," said the receptionist's voice.

Snow frowned. He had not spoken to Janus since the chief killed the most recent Victor and put the president in a quandary. On the one hand, he had ruined Snow's plan to make Triton his heir. On the other hand, Snow did not want Janus to be inhibited. If somebody ever started waving a knife wildly with Snow in the room, Snow wanted the Peacekeepers to act immediately, without second-guessing themselves, and that meant it would be a bad idea to reprimand Janus.

So what did Janus want now?

"Thank you for admitting me to your presence, sir," Janus said smoothly. "I believe that I have some important information about a danger to the realm."

"Please be seated," said Snow.

The Chief Peacekeeper sat. "Tell me, have you heard of a recent novel called "THE DEATH OF KINGS"?

Snow called himself a President, but he was well aware that his authority was more like a king's in earlier history. Indeed he was greater, because he was the only king in the world.

"No, although it does not sound like a pleasant subject. What is it?"

"Ostensibly, it is as a historical novel about the murder of an English king, Richard II, by his cousin a thousand years ago. But I have reason to think it is being used by a conspiracy. Not one of those District conspiracies that can be crushed by sending in Peacekeepers. This one is in the Capitol itself."

"Used how?"

"First, to inspire a modern rebellion against you, by making parallels between Richard II and yourself. And they use phrases from the novel as code to communicate with each other without saying anything overtly criminal. They call themselves 'Henrians' after the head of the book's conspiracy."

"Ban the novel," ordered Snow.

"Yes, sir. But I'd also like authorization to dig deeper into the conspiracy, question the people involved."

"Very well." But do not resort to severe interrogation methods until I say so. I don't want to ruin my reputation as a benevolent ruler of the Capitol."

Snow did not hear from the Chief Peacekeeper for another month. But he did mention the report to his drinking buddy, Plutarch Heavensbee. He trusted Plutarch, who seemed to show no interest in reaching for power. One of his jobs was to come up with unusual themes for Hunger Games arenas, and he was extremely well-read as he searched literature and art for interesting ideas. Most people of the Capitol showed little literary interest in anything beyond the current best-seller.

"Richard II?" echoed Plutarch. "Shakespeare wrote a play about him. I hadn't heard of a novel on the subject. The odd thing is that Shakespeare portrayed Richard as a self-destructive neurotic who brought about his own downfall, very unlike you. I suppose the novel may have taken a different point of view."

The Chief Peacekeeper came back with a videotaped confession. The young woman in the video, a Virgilia Demarca, did not look like a usual Capitolite. She had very short hair that would probably be usually covered with a wig. Her dress was rather baggy, though skirts with a tight waist and considerable décolletage were supposed to be the rage this year.

"You admit to buying a contraband book called the DEATH OF KINGS?" asked Janus's voice on the video.

"Yes," she replied softly and tonelessly.

"And that you knew it was code for a conspiracy to depose the President?"

"Yes."

"And you attended meetings discussing the plans for deposition?"

"Yes."

"Who else was there?"

She recited names which meant nothing to Snow.

"Anybody important?"

"There was a Games official and a Peacekeeper. They refused to give their names."

"We'll have you look at pictures later. What were the plans?"

"I wasn't told the crucial stuff. I was just a functionary."

"What was your function?"

"To talk up the book and explain what it really meant."

"Why are you telling us about this now?"

She took a deep breath. "I realized that I had been stupid. Panem needed its president, the only man who could keep the Empire at peace."

Janus turned off the video. "There, that's the proof that you asked for."

Snow frowned. Something about the woman's demeanor seemed odd. "She wasn't talking under duress?"

"No."

"I want her examined by a doctor of my own choosing, to ensure that she hasn't been tortured into making a false confession." Torture in itself did not bother Snow, but he had forbidden it at this stage, and in this case it would impair the credibility of the video.

"Very well. Ms. Demarca is still in custody."

Snow sent an expert and reliable Hunger Games physician, one that had designed the health-monitoring technology in the GPSs that were injected in the tributes. Her report was that Demarca's body showed no sign of injury, though her stress levels were high. The stress was understandable. Snow authorized Janus to step up the investigations.

During the next few weeks Snow got several reports from Janus. He had made several arrests of the names given by Virgilia Demarca, and "persuaded" them to give more information. He had confirmed that they intended to kill Snow, not just depose him. He was still trying to determine the date on which they intended to strike.

Snow was impressed by the investigation. He was deciding that perhaps Janus was what he needed in a successor: one who was intent on rooting out all dangers to the Empire. Although he was not yet ready to make his intentions public, he discussed the possibility with intimate friends like Plutarch, and left secret instructions to be opened upon his death, directing that power should be transferred to Janus in case of emergency.

Finally, three months after the Triton Brothers disaster, Janus called with an urgent message. They were going to strike that night at the Presidential Palace, with the aid of a mole in the bodyguard. He offered to take Snow to a safe house, where the President could wait quietly while the Peacekeepers would trap the attackers at the Palace. Snow wanted to know who the mole was, but the Chief Peacekeeper demurred – they needed to act like everything was normal lest the attackers become suspicious. So Snow let himself be driven to the safe house, keeping his patience by, as Homer had put it several thousand years ago, "brooding on his vengeance".

0-0-0-0

Snow was awakened that night by some noise outside his door. Since it was locked, he did not worry about it overmuch, and finally decided to tune it out. But then there were crashing sounds just on the other side of the door, and it burst open. Chief Peacekeeper Janus rushed in with a gun.

"What's happening?" asked Snow, sitting up in bed.

Janus pointed his gun at Snow's head. "The assassination of a President."

There were sounds of gunshots outside, and Snow supposed that Janus's minions were getting rid of Snow's supporters. But the Chief Peacekeeper seemed completely startled, and kept switching his attention between Snow and the events outside, as if this wasn't part of his plan at all. And suddenly Oculus appeared, and fired before Janus could respond. The Chief Peacekeeper collapsed at the first shot.

Oculus walked into the bedroom calmly. "Let's get you out of here, Mr. President," he said, "and after that we need to have a long talk."

0-0-0-0

"The whole 'Henrian" conspiracy was a hoax, designed to manipulate your actions," said Oculus. "The novel was just a novel. There was no mole among your bodyguards. Demarca was just a petty shoplifter, but when Janus realized that she was easily intimidated, he used a little torture to make her record that fake confession."

"But my doctor found no signs of torture," said Snow.

"Janus used a torture technique that wouldn't leave marks - low power electric shocks to her breasts. Very sensitive organs, and she was a Capitol girl not used to danger or pain, so she gave in very quickly. And he told her that she would suffer even worse if she told the doctor what they had done."

"Humph," snorted Snow. All of his suspicions, yet Janus had anticipated them.

"Janus broke into your secret records. Once Janus learnt that you had designated him as a successor, he decided it was time to strike – removing you to a 'safe' place where he could attack you. Fortunately I found out in time."

"And now," continued Oculus, "we need to free Ms. Demarca and all the other people unjustly accused of conspiracy."

"No," said Snow. "Distribute them around the Districts."

"What?"

"I must maintain my reputation in the city as a benevolent ruler. I can't have people going around the Capitol talking about how they were mistreated in prison when they had done nothing wrong. In the Districts, it won't matter what people hear."

"Er – yes, sir."

"Make it so. That will be all."

So Janus was a thorough failure as a possible successor. Perhaps he should choose Oculus instead? But no.

 _He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous._

TO BE CONTINUED.

(AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story is based on two historical instances: the overthrow and murder of the English king Richard II by his cousin Henry, and the conspiracy of Sejanus to overthrow the Roman Emperor Tiberias while pretending to quash a fake conspiracy)


	4. Seneca Crane

**Who Will Rule After Me?**

 **Chapter 4 Seneca Crane**

About a month later Snow felt faint during a banquet. He slipped out while Plutarch loyally covered his absence. The doctors said the specific problem was loss of too much blood through his mouth ulcers. They gave him new medicines to restore the balance and warned him to take them regularly. They also expressed a general opinion that he was getting old and should cut back on activities. Snow did so, making less public appearances and staying in the palace much more. Meanwhile he ordered the doctors to keep the advice strictly confidential. He didn't want others to get the notion that he was getting too old to rule. When Plutarch casually asked how the succession search was going, Snow told him never to bring up the subject again.

Fortunately people's attention was on the Hunger Games. In Year 68 had a particularly sexy winner, Aphrodite from District 2. Seneca Crane, the Gamesmaster in charge of the managing the Victors, stage-managed numerous parties for her, and her events helped cover the lack of public appearances by Snow. The President was grateful for that, even if it wasn't Seneca's intention.

Later that year Seneca requested another audience with Snow. Finnick Odair had come of age and Seneca said several society ladies had offered him (Seneca, not Finnick) bribes for a night with the Victor. Snow took the ladies' names and promised to take care of the abuse. Then he contacted the ladies himself and collected the bribes. News got around, and men started asking for Cashmere and Aphrodite. Seneca, still ostensibly in charge of protecting the Victors, either didn't know what was going on or was careful to look the other way.

In Year 69, however, there was a public relations disaster regarding the Games. There was a fashion that year in the Capitol for nudism, with body paints and enhancements standing in for clothes. Chief Gamesmistress Turkeymother decided to do the same with the tributes, staring with the parade. That was when the disaster happened. For the first time, the audience saw the tributes without the usual gaudy apparel and saw how scrawny and malnourished they were. (The tributes themselves, who did not share the Capitol culture, were visibly humiliated at being seen naked, though nobody cared about that.)

Snow ordered that the tributes be clothed for the Games themselves, but Turkeymother said there wasn't time to create uniforms. Snow turned to Seneca, who had the bright idea of reusing arena uniforms from prior years (most of whose original wearers, of course, were dead). They wouldn't match, but that could be played up as an interesting feature of the Games. Snow authorized it and Seneca came up with the uniforms, with the help of a brilliant young tailor-apprentice named Cinna.

The Games went well (if 22 deaths in a few days could be considered well) until it got down to the last two tributes. They were from the same district, were good friends, and refused to fight each other. Finally Turkeymother created an acid rainstorm, forcing the pair to war over shelter, and the girl killed the boy, becoming the latest Victor. A few days later, while being treated in the hospital, the girl stole a hypodermic needle and stabbed herself to death, She was quoted as saying that she had betrayed her best friend and didn't deserve to live.

Now, with no Victor, Snow had to cancel the Victor Tour with all of its propaganda importance. He was fed up with Chief Gamesmistress Turkeymother, so he had her executed and promoted Seneca in her place.

After that fiasco things seemed to go swimmingly. Seneca teamed up with Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith and made sure that the following Games were exciting. The rich decadents of Capitol were paying lots of money for the privilege of sleeping with Victors, while the rest of the Capitol admired the Victors from afar and made the winners their heroes. Snow, still beset by poor health which he kept secret, began to delegate many of his duties, keeping to his palace and aloof even from the Capitol, Plutarch never argued with him anymore, Snow began to live in a fantasy world with the Games at its center. He even speculated that Seneca, who managed the Games so well, might be the person he needed to manage the Empire as his successor. Weren't the Games the center of Imperial culture?

Then came the 74th Games.

In the parade Cinna, who had helped solve the fiasco five years ago and was now assigned to District 12, came up with a dazzling publicity stunt, wreathing the girl and boy from 12 in flames. The audience loved it, but the silly people gave the credit to the tributes, not Cinna. Instead of realizing that the boy and girl were puppets, they talked excitedly about the Girl on Fire.

A few days later, Snow watched the Individual Evaluations via a closed-circuit camera. They were mostly quite dull. One girl, trying to demonstrate archery, badly missed her first attempt and everybody lost interested, including Snow.

Then, for her last attempt, she shot an arrow directly at the Gamesmakers' banquet table. The arrow skewered an apple at the top of the fruit bowl and pinned it to the opposite wall. The girl was actually the best archer Snow had ever seen and, he suddenly realized, this was the one everybody was calling the Girl on Fire.

The scene had its comic aspects - Plutarch had panicked and landed in a punch bowl – but Snow was worried. He started to read up on neglected reports from his spy in District 12. Law enforcement was lax there. The head Peacekeeper was mainly concerned with bedding girls. The mayor was married to a woman whose sister had been killed in the Second Quarter Quell, and might secretly hate the Games. Floggings and use of the stocks were rare, executions almost non-existent. No explicit signs of rebellion, but that might be due to poverty, not to loyalty to the Empire. Rebellious sentiments could grow there, undetected.

Distracted by a bleeding episode in his mouth, Snow took no action, expecting an announcement that Seneca had requested for the girl to be arrested and given a thorough whipping. But the next thing he heard, Caesar announced that the girl had been given an 11 for her Individual Evaluation – the highest score in this year's games!

Snow summoned Seneca to his rose garden.

"An ELEVEN?"

"She earned it," said Seneca.

"She shot an arrow at your head." He felt a vague déjà vu over that sentence.

"At an apple—"

"Near your head."

Seneca was convinced that shooting the arrow was nothing more than a dramatic stunt, and he loved drama. If she pulled stunts like that in the arena, the audience would love it. She might be this year's Finnick Odair, the hoped-for hero.

Snow tried to bring him back from the clouds, with a lecture on Realpolitik. He concluded, "A little hope is good, as long as it's contained. SO CONTAIN IT."

He talked about his worries with Plutarch, who had cleaned himself up after the punch bowl accident. Plutarch seemed calm. "It'll work out. The Careers will be furious over seeing that girl get the top score, and they'll target her in the Games. She won't last long. If you arrested her while everybody's attention is on her, the story about the security flaw will get out. Much better keep quiet and have her die a "normal" death during the Games."

Plutarch's advice seemed right, as usual.

The next day there was more foolishness from the populance. The boy from 12 announced to Caesar that he was in love with his district partner, but their love was doomed because at least one of them would obviously die in the Games. The people gobbled it up. Even Caesar seemed moved. Then Snow realized that the foolishness had a dangerous side. For once, people were starting to talk about whether it was really necessary for 23 people to die each year. But once one of the "lovers" died, they would probably get over it. The Girl on Fire simply had to be killed.

Seneca and her enemies certainly tried. When she tried to take refuge in an unoccupied part of the arena, Seneca set it on fire, but she succeeded in returning to the central section. Later the Careers managed to trap her up a tree, but she found a hive of mutation-bees and dropped it on her enemies, killing one and scattering the others so that she could escape. She was apparently expert in manoeuvring through forests, but to the audience it added to her heroic aura.

Seneca came up with a new plan. The girl's most formidable enemies were the two surviving Careers, Cato and Clove from District 2. But as other tributes continued to be killed, they were likely to turn on each other eventually. Seneca proposed a new rule, that two people from the same district could become joint victors. Ostensibly this would humor the Capitolians who wanted the "lovers" from 12 to both survive, but it would also induce Cato and Clove to stick together. Next, Seneca proposed a "feast", an offer of extra supplies to the surviving tributes. This would lure Cato, Clove, and the Girl on Fire to the same spot, and the Careers would kill the girl. There were 3 other tributes still alive: the boy from 11, the girl from 5, and the boy from 12, but they weren't likely to interfere. The first two were loners who avoided battle, and the last was badly wounded. Indeed, medicine for the boy from 12 was probably the best bait for the girl. Snow hated to add a new rule to the Games, but the chance of getting the Girl on Fire killed was worth it.

Unfortunately, the tributes did not follow the script. For reasons known only to themselves, Cato and Clove decided to split up at the crucial moment. Clove found and overpowered the Girl on Fire, but decided to indulge in a little torture before finishing her off. The boy from 11, appearing to claim his own new supplies, killed Clove and spared her victim – it seems that he owed her a favor from earlier in the Games. Cato eventually killed the boy from 11, but the Girl on Fire was still alive and looked more heroic than ever, having risked her life to save her lover and succeeded at it. As an additional irony, the girl from 5 accidentally poisoned herself with something called nightlock berries. This set off an unexpected backlash in the Capitol. Here was a girl who had hurt nobody and shown great resourcefulness in the Games, only to be brought down to a choice between starvation and unfamiliar food that could be poisonous. One man boldly stated in a street interview that "I think the Gamemakers should be locked in a cell with nothing to eat but those berries, for what they did to that girl." He was arrested, but Snow remembered that quote.

Seneca's last try was to release some mutation-wolves into the arena. He calculated, and Snow agreed, that Cato would have the most powerful will to survive, and that the two from 12 would be killed. But once more Cato failed to follow the script. It suddenly seemed to occur to the boy that everybody was using him as a tool – the Capitol to entertain the populance, his District to win the awards for producing a Victor. He lost his nerve, and fell among the wolves. The Girl on Fire put him out of his misery with an arrow, and an idiot technician, believing that the Games were over with two official victors, turned off the wolves.

All this had brought back Snow's ulcers. Desperately he ordered Seneca to suspend the double-victor rule and order the lovers to fight. If the boy won, Snow was rid of the Girl on Fire. If she won, Snow could spin her as a murderess who had killed her lover to save her skin. Then he rushed off to take his medication.

When he got back to the Games Center he found a disaster. The lovers from 12 had threatened to kill themselves rather than fight each other. Seneca, doubtlessly remembering his predecessor's fate, talked them out of it by restoring the promise of twin-victor awards. The result was that the girl looked more heroic than ever, and the Games managers looked like buffoons who couldn't make up their minds about the rules.

Snow considered what to do with Seneca's failure, and remembered a street interview. _I think the Gamemakers should be locked in a cell with nothing to eat but those berries…_

TO BE CONTINUED

 _(Author's NOTE: Snow's déjà vu over the line "She shot an arrow at your ahead" is an in-joke. Donald "Snow" Sutherland appeared in the 1990s movie BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, and was onscreen when another character spoke that same line)_

 _(Author's NOTE: This chapter overlaps some other Hunger Games fanfics that I have written. The victor that committed suicide was in AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. Cato and Clove were featured in HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO. Plutarch's real agenda was portrayed in THE RULES OF THE GAME)_


	5. Katniss Everdeen

**Who Will Rule After Me?**

 **Chapter 5 Katniss Everdeen**

When they first started to form their institutions, the leaders of Panem debated whether to found an official religion to encourage loyalty to the State. A historian named Livius Heavensbee persuaded them against it. Official religions often backfired by producing anti-official religions. Europeans who wanted to oppose a Catholic ruler embraced Protestantism, and vice-versa. In China the Emperor may have the Mandate of Heaven, but rebels could claim that the Mandate had been lost and transferred to their own leaders. In the end the leaders of Panem gave up on the idea.

There was still the possibility of a rebellion disguised as a religious movement. The possibility became less and less as years went on, because many religions required some tradition from the past, and traditions were being forgotten. Much knowledge of the past had been lost during the ecological crises, and Panem could control what history was taught in schools. Still, Snow had a special detachment of Peacekeepers monitor the districts for unusual religious activity.

Recently, just in a single year, there was a remarkable resurgence of "religious" emotion. Several districts had somehow revived the ancient notion of a "messiah" who would liberate his people . Had they found the idea simultaneously, or was there some secret communication between the districts?

The Peacekeeper in District 9 had recorded a particularly weird idea. That there was a devil, a sort of negative god, who could grant powers. The story said that the Presidents of Panem had made a deal with the devil. In exchange for sacrificing 23 innocents each year, the President would have supreme power in Panem. The story went on to point out that since Snow had sacrificed only 22 youths in the 74th Games, with the pair from District 12 both surviving, the devil was angry with him and might withdraw support. Seneca Crane's execution didn't count. Being a Gamesmaster, he wasn't considered innocent.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

As was customary, the victory celebrations had been postponed for a few days to allow the Victor to receive medical treatment. There was an additional delay this time because various props, such as the Victory Crown, had to be duplicated to accommodate two Victors. But in the end, the ceremony was held, with Caesar presiding, and Snow actually met Miss Everdeen in the flesh for the first time. It was a shock.

Katniss Everdeen was awe-inspiring.

Snow couldn't figure out just why she inspired his awe. It was not sexual. She was not particularly beautiful, and she was rather small – indeed her growth may have been stunted by early malnutrition. But it didn't matter. She was dazzling. Not just to Snow, but to the entire audience in the theatre. He could even imagine waves of admiration radiating inward from the Districts as they saw her on TV.

He commented on the crowd's reaction during a drinking session with Plutarch, concealing his own feelings.

"I think it's what they call charisma," said Plutarch. "Rather like descriptions of Elizabeth Capet, the last President before the Grand Rebellion. And the odd thing is, I don't think the girl even knows she has it. But I'm sure that's what inspired Seneca to give her that 11 score, when he could have had her whipped for aiming an arrow near him. My grandfather said that Capet's personal magnetism probably held the Empire together for years, papering over its problems. It's only on her death that things fell apart. "

And it was that remark from Plutarch that first put the thought in Snow's mind. Katniss Everdeen as the next President.

Snow had no charisma and knew it. His main propaganda claim was that he kept the Empire at peace. But imagine a woman holding the loyalty of Panem through her charisma. And starting off a reign young, which would give her years to work her magic. But –

"Do you think she's a potentially dangerous rebel?" Snow asked.

Plutarch seemed to ponder this deeply. "No. She was forced into the Hunger Games, and told to fight for her life. Why blame her if she had odd strategies for doing so? Once she has enjoyed the privileges of a Victor, she may be a lot more loyal."

Snow had her watched closely during the next few months, and bugged her Victory Mansion. He picked up mild infractions: sneaking outside the fence into the woods to practice archery, making out with a handsome young man named Gale in spite of her supposed devotion to Peeta Mallark, and talking to that drunken older Victor Heymitch Abernathy. But she didnothing that seemed actually rebellious. She was popular with the people of District 12, and why not? They were getting showered with free food as a result of her victory, and she had what Plutarch called "charisma", but she did not seem to be using it to form a rebel band.

Yet Snow received new reports of subversion elsewhere, another "messiah" report with an odd wrinkle. In this telling the messiah was a girl, and she had actually existed at some point. She had helped liberate France from England, and records of her story had been found in the western end of District 11, which had a French heritage. The girl had a name like Joan or Joanne, and the spy reporting the story thought that this might be a propaganda reference to the Victor Johanna Mason. But Snow thought that they had a different Victor in mind. Katniss Everdeen.

As the Victor Tour train set out, Snow decided to do something almost unprecedented in his reign. He secretly boarded the train as it set out to District 12, to talk with Miss Everdeen herself.

0-0-0-0-0

A flunky ushered Miss Everdeen into the study of her Victory Mansion, which Snow had commandeered as his office. Snow tried to keep his face impassive as he felt the involuntary awe come over him, and the same time he realized that he was putting himself at a risk, sitting only a few meters away from a potential enemy. If she had a hunting knife with her she could cut his throat in a second. But Oculus was with her family and she must be aware that the operator could kill her beloved sister in a second if she did anything wrong.

"I think we'll make this whole situation a lot simpler by agreeing not to lie to each other," Snow said "What do you think?"

"Yes, I think that would save some time." Cool and collected. Addressubg him as an equal. A good quality in a future ruler.

On the way over, Snow had thought of a test for the girl. Rebel propaganda glorified the way she had defied a government order on national TV, and got away with it. But the silly sentimentalists of the Capitol thought she and her lover had really intended to die together, like the legendary "star-crossed lovers" Romeo and Juliet. So he ordered her to play Juliet, hopelessly in love with Peeta Mallark. If she didn't, he said, she could be inspiring rebellion, plus getting her local lover Gale killed.

Give her credit: the idea of a violent uprising genuinely seem to frighten her, and she promised to play the lovesick schoolgirl and dump her local lover if it would keep the peace. Snow was impressed. But could she stick to her resolution?

Snow stayed hidden at the local Peacekeepers headquarters until she departed on the Victory Tour, then caught a secret second train back to the Capitol. He had filmed reports of all her Tour appearances sent to him on the train, and it was worrisome. She was going along with the role he had imposed, showing devotion to her fellow Victor. His spy on the Tour reported that she had even started sleeping with Peeta. Snow had that information leaked out. But the rebels were not going along with the script. Everywhere she went the crowds mobbed her, looking for a signal to rebel. They had even invented a new salute to honor her, based on a gesture she had made during the Games. If Miss Everdeen faltered in her act, even by accident, an uprising could break out then and there.

Snow decided that another test was in order.

In a corner of District 11 there was a particularly sadistic Peacekeeper named Romulus Thread. He liked whipping people, and locking them in stocks, and torturing them in his jail, no matter how minor their offenses. He would probably like killing them as well, but his superiors would never authorize it, and he was hated even by fellow Peacekeepers. So Snow decided to turn him loose on District 12, and watch how Miss Everdeen reacted to his brutality. As a Victor she was traditionally free from Peacekeeper harassment, but how would she react to others' suffering? If she tuned it out, Snow could present her as a spoiled rich girl and alienate her admirers. If she encouraged her District to rebel, Snow could wipe it out and its 3 Victors with it. New technical developments implied that the Empire could do without District 12's coal. Thread wasn't told of any of this, of course. He was just encouraged to be Thread.

The experiment started well – one of the first persons arrested by Thread was Miss Everdeen's former lover Gale. Snow watched the video as Thread personally flogged the boy at 12's public whipping post, and then all hell broke loose.

News reached Miss Everdeen, who rushed onto the scene. But instead of trying to simply stop the whipping, she recklessly interposed herself, and got hit on the side of her face by the lash. She collapsed in agony and even Snow was shocked at how the fascinating girl had gotten hurt. What was worse, the blow might deter her from any further action, ruining the test.

Then the drunken Haymitch Abernathy, of all people, intervened. Except that he wasn't drunk at the moment, and he actually kept his wits even though Snow knew he was outraged at the blow to his protégée. Coolly he told Thread that he had hurt a VIP, a beloved Victor who was supposed to be immune to such treatment, and was going to get in terrible trouble with the Capitol. Peeta Mallark backed Heymitch up. Thread caved in, and though he blustered a bit, he stopped the whipping and ordered the boy released into the care of the Victors.

And the failure of the test wasn't the worst of it. Somehow the video of the incident leaked out, all over Panem. Everybody saw their beloved Katniss intervene to stop a case of torture only to get an agonizing blow from a Peacekeeper. And they saw the Peacekeeper turn coward when confronted by a seemingly hopeless drunk. Even more than the Hunger Games, it was an image of barbaric rule vs heroic resistance, and there were riots all over the Districts, some of which evolved into actual rebellion.

The idea of grooming Katniss as a successor was in ruins now. For the rest of her life, Katniss Everdeen would be the symbol of virtuous resistance to tyranny.

TO BE CONTINUED.

 _(AUTHOR'S NOTE: the idea that the President is using the Hunger Games victims as sacrifices to a devil is from another story I wrote, WHY CRESSIDA TURNED REBEL. In both stories it is treated as a lurid rumor and does not represent Snow's real motives.)_

 _(AUTHOR'S NOTE: the idea that Snow is secretly fascinated by Katniss and at one point considered grooming her as his successor is from a remark made by Donald Sutherland, who played Snow in the movies. "_ _Kakima54"_ _suggested that I write a fic based on the idea.)_

 _(AUTHOR'S NOTE: the idea of pre-Panem religions surviving underground has been treated by "fernwithy" in her wonderful HUNGER GAMES stories. In her case, it was Judaism surviving in District 8)_

 _(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Throughout this fic I try to reproduce what I think goes on in Snow's head and his attitudes are not mine. For example, I do volunteer work at a church, but it would be just like Snow to think that religion is just a cover for something else. Likewise his notion that Katniss is sexually active with both Gale and Peeta)._


	6. Apres moi le deluge I

**Who Will Rule After Me?**

 **Chapter 6 Apres moi le deluge I**

After that Snow had to spend several days doing damage control. A gruesome rumour went around that Thread's whip did not just hit Katniss's face but poked out an eye; it was false, but it was days before Miss Everdeen's prep team made her visage presentable enough to show to the Empire, and uprisings occurred during those days.

What was worse, even the people of the Capitol were upset at the blow to their beloved sweetheart. They were too docile to riot about it, but the reputation of the Peacekeepers took a nosedive. Snow's security apparatus was based on the presumption that the Capitol population could be counted on to be loyal or at least apathetic. But the popularity of Katniss Everdeen was disturbing that. One day Snow received a visit from his little grand-daughter, who showed up sporting the odd hair-do Katniss had worn in the arena: an asymmetric one-sided pigtail. When he hid his revulsion and inquired about the choice, she replied "All the girls in school are wearing this, Grand-pa." That was the Capitol's next generation.

Snow called in the Chief Peacekeeper, Sejanus's successor, and ordered him to kill Katniss Everdeen and make it look like an accident.

The Chief Peacekeeper refused to carry out the order.

The Victors were the heroes of the Empire, the Chief said. If he saw a Victor commit a crime he might feel it his duty to shoot him or her, but he wouldn't do it just on order. Particularly if the Victor was Katniss Everdeen.

Snow got the same answer from the Assistant Chief, and even from Oculus. Nobody wanted to touch Katniss Everdeen.

Several decades earlier the Peacekeepers had wiped out a guild of professional assassins. Too bad. Snow could have used one just now.

The one exception to the Peacekeepers' attitude was, unfortunately, Romulus Thread. He had finally figured out that Katniss was trespassing in the woods outside the District, and announced that anybody caught doing so would be shot, "no matter how prestigious she is" ( the pronoun gave away just who he had in mind). He then turned on the electric border fence on a day when Katniss was hunting in the woods, to trap her there. But instead of doing the intelligent thing and keeping watch on the fence area, he sent some Peacekeepers to her Victory Mansion to document that she wasn't there. Unfortunately she suddenly popped up, having somehow gotten through the fence without being fried, and his entire scheme was ruined. It was going to be useless to depend on Thread.

Snow turned his attention to Heymitch Abernathy. "Do you think he is a rebel?" he asked Plutarch during their next drinking session. "He certainly made things awkward for the government."

"I doubt it," said Plutarch. "He was probably just trying to protect Miss Everdeen from a threat."

"Because of her 'charisma' ?" Snow said sourly.

"Not just that. Look at it from his point of view: he lost 23 pairs of tributes in a row, from the 51st Games to the 73rd. Then he finally won big time, thanks to Miss Everdeen and her boyfriend. He's probably eternally grateful to her for redeeming his reputation. He'd rather die than see her get hurt."

It looked like he couldn't rely on Plutarch, either, but then Plutarch had an excuse. Snow had made him Chief Gamemaster for the Third Quarter Quell, the most important Games in a generation. Naturally he was pre-occupied. He had an idea about involving the current living Victors in the opening ceremonies, and had submitted it to Snow for approval.

Snow was so distracted that, while going through the list of Victors, he accidentally clicked on the app that sorted tributes by District/gender. He was about to back out when he noticed something about the display.

Every slot was occupied, even though in a few cases, such as 7/Female and 12/Female, there was only one occupant. One could actually have a Hunger Games populated by Victors only.

And Katniss Everdeen, the only female Victor from 12, would have to participate, against older and more experienced killers.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The Capitol was gaily decorated for the Quell; there was even a fancy new Training Center. Snow's propaganda department whipped up enthusiasm among the Capitol populance. If they showed their usual mania for the Hunger Games and its violence, they might swallow the death of Katniss Everdeen during the traditional fighting.

Then everything went disastrously wrong.

The District 12 chariot was the last in the parade, as usual, but Katniss's prep team had costumed the girl as a Goddess of Fire, ostensibly because of District 12's connection with coal and heating. But she looked like a very angry goddess, likely to smite somebody with a firebolt. Preferably President Snow. And the crowd was practically bowing to her in worship. Plutarch was definitely right about her charisma.

Fortunately she was out of sight for the next three days, in the Training Center. But then came the interviews with Caesar and the second big disaster, and Miss Everdeen was only tangentially involved this time.

In the usual interviews, the guests were frightened teenagers, desperate to suck up to wealthy sponsors in the Capitol. But this year the guests were Victors, who already had wide support, and were sophisticated enough to phrase their messages carefully. One by one they made veiled insults against the Hunger Games functionaries and Snow in particular for putting their lives in danger again. The most violent protest was from Johanna Mason of District 7, who had gotten forced into the Games because she was the only female Victor from her district:

"Well, hell yes I'm angry. You know, I'm getting totally screwed over here. The deal was that if I win the Hunger Games, I get to live the rest of my life in peace. But now you want to kill me again. Well you know what? F*** that! And f*** everybody that had anything to do with it!"

Her F-bombs were bleeped out in the telecast of the interview, but there was little doubt exactly what she said.

Then Peeta topped her, in the quietest way possible. Last year he had "casually" revealed that Katniss Everdeen was his beloved. This year he announced that his beloved was having his baby.

Pregnant girls had been sent to the Games before, but not pregnant girls who were the darlings of the Hunger Games audience. Panem's favorite love story was going down in ruins, as it became clear that at least one of the parents, and likely the baby itself, were going to be killed.

The Capitol audience nearly rioted. Reports said some audiences in the Districts WERE rioting.

Snow declared a curfew and hid in the Control Center. In 12 hours, Katniss and the other Victor/Tributes would be in the arena and beyond anybody's interference.

0-0-0-0-0-0

Snow set up an office and even a sleeping area in the Games Control Center, partly because he wanted to be on the spot if anything happened, partly because he thought transportation between the Center and his palace would be unsafe. But to his dismay, the older Victors did not try ganging up on Katniss Everdeen. On the contrary, two of the most formidable Victors, Finnick Odair and Johanna Mason, made alliances with her, and fought at her side. Even more incredibly, two other Victors, who had outlasted 23 competitors in their own Games, sacrificed their lives to keep her safe.

Two of the most powertful Victors outside the allaince, Gloss and Cashmere of District 1, were killed in a melee over weapons. Snow had two hopes left: that either the District 2 Careers, Enobaria and Brutus, would prevail, or that either Johanna or Finnick would regain their sense of self-preservation and kill Everdeen rather than lose their own lives in the final stages of the Game.

Beetee, one of the allies, suggested tapping into the arena's power source and using electric shocks as a weapon against the enemies from District 2. The plan wasn't clear to his allies – or for that matter, to Snow – but they apparently decided to trust his expertise and follow his directions. One part of his plan required the allies to split up physically, with Everdeen and Mason taking some wiring from the arena border to the Cornucopia area.

Then Snow heard some magic words in the control room.

"Sir? We've lost the signal from Miss Everdeen's tracker," said a technician.

"Is she dead?" asked Snow, trying to conceal his eagerness.

"We'll have to check," said Plutarch. He turned to an assistant. "Find her last known position."

An image appeared on the screen. In the arena, Johanna Mason was kneeling over another tribute. Since she had her back to the camera, they could not immediately see the details. But then she got up, a smirk on her face, and Snow could see Katniss Everdeen lying prone on the ground , copious blood on her arm and neck. Johanna must have cut her throat.

"Fire the cannon," ordered Plutarch. He turned to Snow. "Permission to ride the hovercraft to pick up the body?"

That was oddly former phrasing, coming from his friend. "That's not traditional, is it?"

"No, but the circumstances are unusual. It's possible that some supporters may try to steal the body and spread a rumor that she's still alive. It's happened before in history."

"Right. By all means, go and oversee the retrieval. I'll stay here."

The technicians were scanning for other tributes still alive, but Snow was scarcely paying attention. Everdeen was dead, all's right with the world. Then, about half an hour later, they tried focussing on Finnick Odair, and Snow had a shock. Fnnick was confronting Katniss.

She was a mess. Blood all over her uniform, hair matted, shaking visibly. Her eyes were dilated, probably a sign of severe injury, and she looked disoriented. But she was alive. What had happened?

 _Kill her, Odair_ , Snow thought desperately. But he didn't. Instead she was raising her famous bow and arrow. Maybe that would work. Shooting her ally might sully her reputation.

Finnick was doing nothing physical to defend himself. Instead he spoke calmly. "No, Katniss. I'm your friend, your friend. Remember who the true enemy is."

She looked confused, but finally muttered "Snow" . She lowered the bow.

"Right. Beetee has rigged up a way to short out the force field, but he's hurt and can't finish it. You can finish the job."

"H-h-how?"

"Complete the circuit. Tie that wire to your arrow and shoot it into the force field. Here, let me help you tie it."

Snow turned to the technicians. "What's he talking about? Can they burn out the force field?"

"I don't know, sir. But Beetee is a highly admired engineer. He must have known what he was doing. When the system recharges –"

"Shut it down!"

At this point the screen blanked out, and all the displays in the control center went haywire. The tributes had brought down the arena electric grid.

"Get me Plutarch! Plutarch! She's survived and knocked out the force field. What do we do? Plutarch!"

No answer. In fact, it took several hours to find out exactly what happened.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"They've escaped, sir," said Oculus. "Plutarch's hovercraft picked up Everdeen, Odair, and Beetee, and then headed east to an unknown destination. Most of Plutarch's personal assistants and Everdeen's support staff are with him, including Heymitch Abernathy. We looked at the records Plutarch left behind, and it looks like he's been planning this getaway for a long time. It also looks like he's the one who leaked the footage of Everdeen getting hit by the whip."

"Did we capture ANYBODY?"

"The remaining living tributes sir. Mallark, Mason, Enobaria. I think Mason deliberately cut out Everdeen's tracker and smeared the blood on her throat to make it look like she'd killed her. Probably planned it a long time ago. She must have expected to escape with Plutarch, and knew she wouldn't have to fight Everdeen."

"Have her stripped, and torture her until she confesses everything."

"You'll have to give the order to somebody else, sir. I quit."

"WHAT? You've been serving me for years!"

"I've been serving the Empire, sir, and you as the guardian of the Empire. But in recent months, your judgement has definitely been failing. You've let your obsession with Miss Everdeen drive one bad decision after another. Putting a lunatic Peacekeeper in charge of her District. Making an enemy of nearly every Victor by pushing them into another Hunger Games. Trying to kill the most popular girl in the Empire. Losing support even the Capitol. Putting far too much trust in Plutarch. And you've basically abandoned your quest to find an heir, just when you need some level-headed aide to help you in your decisions. It's as if you've decided 'Apres moi, le deluge' – you don't care what happens to the realm when you're gone."

"OUT! Get out."

He might have to eliminate Oculus later. He knew too many secrets. But there was something more important to do first.

He asked the computer to connect him to the military base in District 2. He had a mission for them. The Empire no longer needed District 12's products, and they had become a liability, as had its Chief Peacekeeper -

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Thread was angry. Some idiot had accidentally locked him in his own detention center , He called various people to come free him, and got no answer. It was as if his entire Peacekeeping force had disappeared from District 12.

Finally he found a club used for interrogations, and smashed the lock. The outer offices were empty. Puzzled, he went outside into the square.

There were fires, all around him. Even the air was hot, and filling with smoke. Even as he watched a hovercraft dropped another firebomb.

A noise overhead made him look straight up. There was a hovercraft directly overhead. A hatch opened and a bomb fell out, which also stayed overhead as it fell. As if it was deliberately targeting him.

That was his last thought.

TO BE CONTINUED


	7. Apres moi le deluge II

**Who Will Rule After Me?**

 **Chapter 7 Apres moi le deluge II**

Snow sat in the middle of his rose garden. The fact that he was here, and not in one of his own prisons, was proof that Alma Coin did not really hate him, though the Mockingjay did. To Coin, Snow was the king in a chess match that she has won.

With nothing else to do, Snow pondered his downfall. Of course it wasn't really a "fall", more accurately it was a step-by-step descent.

 **Downstep I**

The first big step downward was on TV on October 11, in the year of the 75th Hunger Games,

Of course few other people of the Capitol would interpret it that way. They would be seeing Finnick Odair telling scandalous stories, and be feeling a mixture of tittilation and shock. But Snow saw the broader implications. Years of Capitol myth-making were going down the drain. The image of Panem's elite fighting off barbarism was replaced by images of decadent aristocrats pursuing sex, drugs, and other pleasures. Images of the Hunger Games Victors as the heroes of the Empire, ever seeking to excell other men, were replaced with images of the Victors being bartered as sex toys. The more prestigious the Victor, the higher the price. The fact that the stories were humiliating for Finnick himself increased their credibility.

Snow wondered why the media censors were not blocking the broadcasts, which were obviously originating in District 13. Heads were going to roll.

Finnick concluded with two scandals about Snow himself. How he had ordered his own daughter killed to keep her from reforming the Hunger Games, and how he had poisoned himself to give himself an alibi for another murder. Finnick described how a special drug was being manufactured to keep Snow alive, and how a mutant strong-smelling rose had been bred to hide his stench.

It was going to be very difficult to undo the damage. Suppress one story, and the people would just gossip about the others. And unfortunately most of the stories were true.

Snow sent orders to the prison to torture Annie Crestor, and to film the torture in order to intimidate Finnick into staying quiet. It was then that Snow discovered that Ms. Crestor, along with Peeta Mallark and Johanna Mason, had been rescued from the prison during the broadcast. In fact, it appeared that the whole purpose of the broadcast had been to create a diversion; the prison break had been the real agenda. But the broadcast had done terrible damage.

 **Downstep 2**

On October 20 there was another broadcast. This was from Peacekeeper headquarters in District 2, and the speaker denied being a rebel. In fact, he was the head Peacekeeper. He described the terror tactics used to suppress dissent in the Districts. Like the Hunger Games, they involved targeting the families of the dissidents. Sometimes they were killed, like the family of Heymitch Abernathy after the last quell. More frequently they underwent torture identified as punishment for imaginary crimes, such as flogging. Continued dissent meant more torture.

The Head Peacekeeper admitted being complicit in all this. He thought the brutality was necessary to protect the Empire and save civilization. But now, thanks to Finnick, he realized that what he had really been protecting was a corrupt upper-class, and he could no longer square that with his conscience. He concluded his lecture by taking out a gun and shooting himself in the head.

On October 21 District 2 descended into civil war. By November, as the result of a dramatic, televised scene where Katniss made a splendid speech and then got shot, District 2 joined the rest of the Districts in a state of rebellion.

 **Downstep 3**

On November 3 Snow's chemist informed him that supplies of his antidote were running low because District 11 was no longer sending the special peanut extract which a crucial part of the antidote. When Snow demanded to know why he had not been informed earlier, the chemist said that he had been assured that the reconquest of District 11 would be completed any day now. (That was the propaganda line; in reality the District 11 was not only independent but forming its own government). Show ordered the problem fixed at all costs. On November 7 a group of scientists told Snow that they had found an artificial substitute for the peanut extract, but it was difficult to synthesize, and would swallow up resources used to form other medicines. Snow ordered that the antidote be given top priority. It was.

And on November 12 news leaked out that numerous sick people would have their medicines delayed because of an order from Snow. Curses against the President were heard around the Capitol and Snow feared to leave his palace after that.

 **Downstep 4**

On November 25 the rebels invaded the Capitol, securing the railway station before the Capitol could disable it. Now the rebels could ferry in troops and supplies by train and hovercraft whenever and as much as they liked. Snow ordered the inhabitants on the outskirts of the Capitol to abandon their homes so that he could turn the outskirts into a war zone. Since the Capitol had no infrastructure to house the homeless, and the socialites in the inner Capitol had never been taught the virtues of hospitality, people were living on the streets at the start of a cold winter. For the first time in its history, the Capitol's climate became a problem.

And the warzone kept shifting inward and inward. By December 26 Snow feared that his own palace was in danger and announced that the palace grounds would be available as a refuge for children – which would presumably make it off-limits for a direct rebel attack.

On December 28 two hovercraft bombs fell on the grounds, killing hundreds of children and even some caretakers from both the rebels and the Capitol. Word went around that President Snow, who had presided over the deaths of children every year for decades, must have ordered it. Somebody noted there was a story of the "Slaughter of the Innocents" on the order of a wicked king, which supposedly had taken place on this very day of the year.

Snow was doomed. His own bodyguard turned him over to Coin – which turned out to be fortunate, because numerous other people wanted to tear him to pieces.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Footsteps on the path of the garden. It was Katniss Everdeen. But it was not the heroic Mockingjay everybody had seen on TV, or even the determined girl he had confronted in her house in District 12. Much of her hair, including the famous one-sided pigtail, had been shaved off. Scars over much of her skin, and new skin grafts over much of the rest. Very thin. The most frightening thing was her eyes, which seemed to staring at a horror that wasn't physically there. Snow recalled hearing that her sister had been killed by the hovercraft bombs.

Snow's life now depended on his persuasiveness. He had to speak truth to a girl who despised him as a liar, and be convincing. And he had to do it with blood dripping from his mouth, because the sores chose this minute to start bleeding copiously. He hadn't consumed the antidote for days; indeed, no dose of the antidote even existed anymore.

He spoke carefully, trying to convince her that he had not sent the bombs; that Coin had done it to make him look like a mass murderer. She just stared. Then inspiration came to Snow. "If I'd had a working hovercraft at my disposal, I'd have been using it to escape. But that aside from that , what purpose could it have served? There was no reason for me to destroy a pen full of Capitol children."

Her eyes changed slightly. She was believing him, precisely because she considered him a snivelling coward and would flee to safety and leave a ruined civilization behind him. And he pointed out how the death of the children – including her beloved sister – had led to Alma Coin being the new President of Panem.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Somebody – probably Plutarch with his flair for the dramatic – planned out Snow's execution. He was to be tied to a stake, and the Mockingjay would shoot him with her one of her famous arrows. Good vanquishing Evil, in a propo that would be broadcast to the whole Empire. There would be no pre-execution flogging or torture, as would have happened under Snow's old regime. Perhaps somebody noticed that Snow, bereft of his antidote, was dying already. Wouldn't want to finish him off before the grand finale.

Katniss approached, in her Mockingjay costume. Somebody, perhaps the very beauticians that had once prepared her for her Caesar interview, had prettied her up for the Empire-wide broadcast. But her eyes still had that distant look. This time Snow couldn't interpret it.

To one side and further up, Alma Coin was reading Snow's sentence, describing him as the fiend who had topped years of tyranny with the Slaughter of Innocents, and was now to suffer the consequences. Katniss raised her bow and arrow, aiming at Snow's heart. The idea of wounding him first and letting him suffer a while probably never occurred to her.

At the last moment she shifted her aim upward and to the side, and let the arrow fly. A second later the dead body of Coin, transfixed by the arrow, fell at Snow's side from her perch.

Snow burst out laughing. He had won! Coin was dead, and Katniss Everdeen would probably die slowly and horribly for assassinating her. His mouth sores, responding to his laughter, opened up and he felt blood trickling down his throat, choking him. It didn't matter. He had won.

Bereft of its 3 best leaders – Snow, Coin, and the Mockingjay - Panem would fall into chaos again. Perhaps it would never recover, and the human being race would end in barbarism, and it served them right.

 _After me, the deluge._

THE END


End file.
